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This is why they call a giant mess a train wreck.
Nothing official on what happened, but it looks to me like the orange bulkhead flat car rammed into the back of the gray covered hopper (making the big boom), then couldn't make the turn. Why? I'd guess the draft gear, (the coupler and the buffer assembly that holds it on to the car) on one of the two cars failed letting the two cars slam together. Why? probably for reasons I don't know. But my suspicion is the helper engines in the middle of the train somewhere off screen were pushing a little harder than they should, and basically the train was trying to smoosh itself between the helper engines and the ones up front. Yes, that should theoretically never happen, since all the engines including the helpers are controlled together from the front. But if something can go wrong it will.
Nothing official on what happened, but it looks to me like the orange bulkhead flat car rammed into the back of the gray covered hopper (making the big boom), then couldn't make the turn. Why? I'd guess the draft gear, (the coupler and the buffer assembly that holds it on to the car) on one of the two cars failed letting the two cars slam together. Why? probably for reasons I don't know. But my suspicion is the helper engines in the middle of the train somewhere off screen were pushing a little harder than they should, and basically the train was trying to smoosh itself between the helper engines and the ones up front. Yes, that should theoretically never happen, since all the engines including the helpers are controlled together from the front. But if something can go wrong it will.